Transgender woman shot by Henderson neighbor shares her story — VIDEO | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Elizabeth Cole pulled the bandage from the side of her throat Thursday afternoon, revealing the stitches in the lower left part of her neck.

Somehow, the bullet missed the transgender woman’s major arteries. The doctors told her that some muscles in her neck “caught” the bullet, and it could be difficult to extract.

The 43-year-old Henderson resident said she isn’t sure when or whether the bullet will be removed. As Cole spoke, every now and then she winced and reached toward her wound.

For the past six years, the Navajo woman has been transitioning. In an interview Thursday with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Cole showed a range of emotions, but a single recurring feeling was one of incredulity to be alive.

Transgender woman shot by Henderson neighbor shares her story — VIDEO | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Jackson Woman Denies Religion Motivated Altercation, Cites Self-Defense Against "Arabian Terrorists" | New Hampshire Public Radio

A Jackson woman accused of a hate crime says her actions inside a hotel lobby had nothing to do with the alleged victims’ religion.

In a preliminary hearing on Friday in Carroll County Superior Court, Priscilla Protasowicki told Judge Amy Ignatius, “I have no problem with their national origin, their religion. I have absolutely no issue with that.”

In April, state prosecutors allege Protasowicki, whose family operates the Covered Bridge Riverview Lodge, pushed two guests during an altercation in the lobby. According to the state’s complaint, Protasowicki said to the family “You’re a Muslim. You’re not supposed to be here,” during the dispute.

Jackson Woman Denies Religion Motivated Altercation, Cites Self-Defense Against "Arabian Terrorists" | New Hampshire Public Radio

Iowa Senate passes bill on crime against transgender people – LGBTQ Nation

The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would make it a hate crime in Iowa to commit an offense against a person because that person identifies as transgender.

The Democratic-controlled chamber voted 27-21 Tuesday for the bill. It now heads to the Republican-majority House, where its future is unclear. The bill must be voted out of a full committee by Friday to meet a legislative deadline for the session.

BREAKING: Iowa Senate passes bill on crime against transgender people – LGBTQ Nation

Northwestern University students charged with hate crime, vandalism to chapel - Chicago Tribune

A Cook County judge on Saturday lashed out at two Northwestern University freshmen accused of spray-painting racist and homophobic messages along with the name of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump inside a nondenominational chapel on the university's campus.

“These allegations are disgusting to me,” Judge Peggy Chiampas said as she eyeballed Anthony Morales, 19, and Matthew Kafker, 18, her voice rising several times during a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The judge ordered both men held in lieu of $50,000 bail for charges of institutional vandalism, hate crime to a place of worship, and criminal damage to property for several spray-painted messages at the Alice Millar Chapel earlier this week.
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Once inside the chapel, the pair spray-painted an expletive and a slur against African-Americans with a swastika on the chapel hallway, Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Brooke Shupe told the court. In a separate area, they spray-painted a derogatory word for homosexuals on a wall, along with lines spray-painted over photos of Muslim students.

The young men also spray-painted penises in several places around the church, including on a piano in the chapel, above the word “God” in a hallway, and in a stairwell where they also painted the word “Trump,” authorities said, Shupe said.

Northwestern University students charged with hate crime, vandalism to chapel - Chicago Tribune

UPDATED::Utah proposal would protect LGBTQ people from hate crimes – LGBTQ Nation

UPDATE::  Utah lawmakers reject hate crimes proposal

Utah’s GOP-controlled Senate has rejected a proposal to beef up the state’s hate crimes law and add protections for gay and transgender people.

The proposal from Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart would give heavier punishments for crimes motivated by factors such as a victim’s race, gender, religion.

The measure failed by six votes in the 29-member Senate on Wednesday. Lawmakers say they’re concerned it could create special protections for some people and punish people for their thoughts.

UPDATE:  Lawmaker: Mormon church ‘snuffed out’ Utah hate crimes bill

A Mormon Utah senator working to pass a hate crimes bill protecting gay and transgender people criticized his church Thursday for thwarting the measure by urging legislators not to upset a balance between religious and LGBT rights.

Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “effectively snuffed out” discussion on his proposal with its statement.

Church spokesman Dale Jones said in the statement Wednesday that lawmakers struck a balance last year with an anti-discrimination law that protected religious rights and LGBT rights. Jones said that balance should be maintained despite efforts on both ends of the political spectrum to upset it.
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“Under current Utah law, there’s no legal distinction between painting a smiley face on a synagogue or painting a swastika on a synagogue. They’re both treated like mere graffiti,” Urquhart said.

UPDATE::  Utah Senate panel OKs bill adding LGBT protections to hate crime law

A proposal to add protections for gay and transgender people to the Utah‘s hate crime law cleared its first test Thursday when it was approved on a 5-1 vote by a Senate committee.

In addition to protections for LGBT people, supporters said the measure but also beefs up the state’s existing hate crimes law, which they argued is difficult to enforce and makes it tough to seriously punish crimes intended to target someone based on race or religion.

Several conservative and religious groups opposed to the measure say they worry it makes thoughts and beliefs a crime and carves out special protections for some classes of people.
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 Urquhart is working on an accompanying proposal to make it clear that a person’s membership in a specific group or hate speech along[sic] cannot be evidence that something was a hate crime. The comments or actions must be specifically related to the crime — such as stating an intent to attack a specific person because of their race, not past statements against members of a race.

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A new proposal could make it a hate crime in Utah to harm someone because they are gay or transgender.

A bill unveiled by a Republican lawmaker Thursday would dole out stiffer penalties for crimes against people or their property that are motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, race, disability, gender or other protected traits.

Equality Utah Executive Director Troy Williams has said Utah’s current hate crimes law has no protections for gay or transgender residents and little protections for other groups.

Utah is one of 15 states with hate crime laws that lack protections for sexual orientation and identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

St. George Republican Sen. Steve Urquhart sponsored the measure. He also sponsored Utah’s landmark LGBT anti-discrimination bill last year that passed after being endorsed by the Salt Lake City-based Mormon church.

Utah proposal would protect LGBTQ people from hate crimes – LGBTQ Nation

UPDATED::Man Testifies How Night Out in the West Village Ended With Gay Slurs and a Friend’s Killing - The New York Times

UPDATE:: Man Accused of Gay-Bias Killing Says He Acted in Self-Defense

A man charged with murdering a gay man in the West Village because of his sexual orientation testified on Wednesday that he had acted in self-defense because he believed he was about to be attacked. He denied that his motive had been a bigoted hatred toward gay people and said that he himself was bisexual.

Taking the stand in his own defense, the man, Elliot Morales, admitted that he had gone to the West Village carrying a loaded revolver on May 17, 2013, after a day of heavy drinking and had gotten into a heated argument with two gay men he encountered on Avenue of the Americas near Eighth Street.

Mr. Morales said the men followed him around a corner onto Eighth Street and challenged him to a fight, even after he took out the revolver and, holding it at his side, told them to leave him alone.

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Mr. Morales said he could not remember yelling gay slurs at the men before the shooting, as several witnesses recalled. He testified that he was bisexual and had had relationships with transgender men. Asked if he harbored animosity toward gay people, he said, “Absolutely not.”

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The killing of Mr. Carson just after midnight on May 18, 2013, shocked New York City and led to angry street protests to call attention to a surge of violence against gays in the city that year. He was 32 when he died, a Brooklyn native who worked as an assistant manager at a gelato kiosk in Grand Central Terminal.

On Monday, the trial of Mr. Morales, 36, who is charged with murder as a hate crime and weapons possession, began with opening statements.

Mr. Morales, who is representing himself, told jurors that he was “not a bigot of any type” and claimed that “what happened was not an act of intent or hate on my part.”

“I am a human being like everyone else,” he said. “I made my share of mistakes. That doesn’t make me a bad person.”

But a prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, said the evidence would show that Mr. Morales purposely picked an argument with Mr. Carson because he was gay, then shot him in cold blood as several people looked on. “Mark Carson was a total stranger to Elliot Morales, and he was killed for no other reason than because he was gay,” Ms. Lucey told the jury. “No other reason.”

Man Testifies How Night Out in the West Village Ended With Gay Slurs and a Friend’s Killing - The New York Times

Indiana House committee tosses hate crimes bill – LGBTQ Nation

Legislation creating the state’s first hate-crime law to help victims targeted because of their race, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or other specified characteristic is expected to die because it won’t get a committee hearing in the House, leaving lawmakers few options to address civil rights this year.

The measure was introduced as Indiana faced criticism following the Republican-led Legislature’s approval of a religious objections law that, even after changes, opponents said invited discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Sen. Susan Glick, a Republican from LaGrange who authored the bill, said her proposal would help show that Indiana is a welcoming place.
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The decision means lawmakers could end the year with no course of action on extending civil rights protections. The bill could get taken to conference committee, dominated by Republicans. And House Minority Leader Scott Pelath said he hasn’t ruled out proposing more amendments to legislation still in the pipeline.

Indiana House committee tosses hate crimes bill – LGBTQ Nation

Gay teacher’s sex video stolen, posted to school site

And once again I'm going to be the asshole.  WTF was this guy thinking?  A video, stored on a cloud-drive?  
But this incident does bring up an interesting issue concerning hate-crime.

A gay teacher at a high school in a suburb of Little Rock, Ark., was fired from his job in October after an unidentified computer hacker gained access to a video of him and an adult male partner having sex and posted the video file on his school’s website, where it was viewed by students.

Brian Cody Bray, 29, said he was “mortified” when a co-worker at the school informed him by phone on Sept. 29 while he was home on sick leave that the video had been posted on his faculty page on the website of Maumelle Charter High School in Maumelle, Ark.

“Pretty much immediately after that phone call I went to the bathroom and threw up,” Bray told the Washington Blade. “I was just in shock that oh my God, this is something that will impact my career, impact my life and what am I going to do?”

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Arkansas doesn’t have a state hate crimes law, preventing the case from being prosecuted as a hate crime if a suspect is eventually identified and arrested. Under Arkansas’s criminal code, the type of computer hacking committed by the suspect against Bray is considered a felony offense.

Jason Marsden is executive director of the Denver-based Matthew Shepard Foundation, which advocates for adopting and strengthening state hate crime laws. He said nearly all state hate crime statutes, including D.C.’s, along with the federal Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, limit their coverage to violent hate crimes.

He is not aware of any such law that would treat a so-called cybercrime like the one committed against Bray as a hate crime, Marsden said.

“He’s had his life trashed by some bigot criminal,” Marsden said. “But we don’t have laws at the federal level or in the state of Arkansas that address those exact circumstances.”

Gay teacher’s sex video stolen, posted to school site

NYPD Looking for Hate-Crime Attacker of Transgender Woman | Advocate.com

Police in New York City are looking for a woman in a pink scarf who attacked a transgender woman in a packed subway car.

Jennifer Louise Lopez, 37, tells The Advocate that on January 30, she was punched in the face and required emergency surgery on her eye following the attack. Lopez, who is the executive director of Everything Transgender in NYC, was riding the uptown D train to 125th Street when a woman confronted her.


"I simply sat down on a subway seat, and she obviously didn't like it," Lopez tells The Advocate. "I had my back to her. She was taking up half the seat, sitting by the window. Her first words to me were 'Get the fuck up!' in a very aggressive manner." Lopez responded, and that's when the woman stood up, loudly questioned her gender identity, and punched her in the face, according to New York City TV station WNBC.

In an interview with New York City cable station NY1 News, Lopez described the attack: "She spun around and said 'Oh, you're a man', as soon as she said that she took a swing at me."

NYPD Looking for Hate-Crime Attacker of Transgender Woman | Advocate.com

At trial in stabbing, mother testifies defendant isn’t anti-gay | The Sacramento Bee

Word that three popular local musicians attacked on a street corner by a knife-wielding man who hurled anti-gay slurs shocked and disturbed Sacramento’s tight-knit midtown. Months after the late-night attack, the suspect’s mother took the stand at his assault trial Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court to tell how her son embraced her own longtime same-sex relationship.

Timothy Brownell, 25, faces assault charges stemming from the attack on musicians Alex Lyman, Blake Abbey and Weston Richmond outside the Press Club bar at 21st and O streets in the early hours of June 22, 2015.

Prosecutors allege Brownell lobbed the homophobic slurs while stabbing Abbey, lead singer for the band Musical Charis in the arm and guitarist Lyman of Slaves in the side, narrowly missing his spleen. Richmond suffered a broken hand and suffered minor cuts in the bloody incident. Sacramento police also investigated the attack as a hate crime in response to claims on social media that Brownell targeted the men because they wore skinny jeans.

At trial in stabbing, mother testifies defendant isn’t anti-gay | The Sacramento Bee

UPDATED::Murderer of Mississippi Trans Teen Mercedes Williamson May Face Hate Crime Charges | Advocate.com

UPDATE::  Mississippi man indicted in transgender teen's bludgeoning death with hammer

A documented member of the Latin Kings street gang used a hammer to beat to death a transgender teen who once considered him a boyfriend, officials say.

A George County grand jury indicted Joshua "Josh" Vallum on a charge of murder in the killing of Mercedes Williamson, a 17-year-old Theodore, Ala., resident whose birth name was Michael Christopher Wilkins. At the time of her death, Williamson was an aspiring cosmetologist living in a $50-a-week apartment.
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"This investigation is still ongoing and I cannot comment on what additional charges, if any, will arise out of that," he said.

Investigators have, however, been looking into whether the killing was gang-related, drug-related or a hate crime.
The U.S. Department of Justice has been involved in the investigation, which the George County Sheriff's Department is heading up.

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2016/01/josh-vallum-charged-in-mercedes.html

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George County Sheriff Department Capt. Ben Brown told the Sun Herald Tuesday that he and the FBI Safe Streets Task Force have been giving the trans teen's death "a thorough investigation to bring justice to the victim's family."

"We are trying to determine whether [the killing] is drug-related, gang-related or a hate crime," he said. "These cases take time to work, and we are working on it as diligently as we can." Brown identified Williamson by her male birth name and did not mention that she was transgender, notes the newspaper.

Once the investigation into her death has concluded, prosecutors will present evidence to a Mississippi grand jury, which will then decide whether to indict Vallum. District Attorney Tony Lawrence told the Herald that the grand jury is able to indict under the state's hate-crime statute. However, the statute does not refer to crimes committed against perceived gender identity, but rather "gender" — meaning the grand jury would have to interpret this provision to include a victim's transgender status.

Vallum's motives still remain unclear, but the Herald has uncovered documentation indicating that he is a member of the Latin Kings street gang, as well as the fact that he lived near where Williamson shared a one-bedroom camper with 41-year-old roommate Jeanie Miller.

Murderer of Mississippi Trans Teen Mercedes Williamson May Face Hate Crime Charges | Advocate.com

Brooklyn Transphobic Attacker Sentenced to 20 Years | Advocate.com

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday for a 2014 hate crime that left a transgender woman with permanent neurological damage.

Last month, a jury found Mashawn Sonds, 26, guilty of first-degree assault with a hate-crime enhancement for swinging a plexiglass 2-by-4 at Kimy Hartman, causing her to fall to the ground and strike her head on the sidewalk during a transphobic attack in Bushwick on October 12, 2014. Hartman, a Native American trans woman, spent nearly a month in the hospital, and endured several surgeries that left her with slurred speech, loss of memory, and facial bruising as a result of the attack.

"I may never have the opportunity to live like I used to again," said Hartman, 30, in Brooklyn Supreme Court court Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News. "Because of someone's hate, it had me lose my independence possibly forever."

Brooklyn Transphobic Attacker Sentenced to 20 Years | Advocate.com

Vandals Key Oregon Lesbians' Car With Antigay Slur, But Cops Say It's Not a Hate Crime | Advocate.com

Imagine what it'd be like every time you get into your car, having to see the despicable antigay slur "fag" or "faggot" carved into your car door, and to know everyone can see it wherever you drive. This is the new reality for a lesbian couple who discovered their new car had been vandalized last week, according to Portland, Ore., TV station KATU.

Jenna Dougherty told the station this is the third time someone has targeted the couple's new Subaru Forester, first with scratches, then with hate speech. "It's hard to feel safe and comfortable being here when people are doing this to your stuff," she said. Making matters worse, the alleged vandalism occurred right outside the couple's apartment in the Portland suburb of Gresham.

"I was really upset, and I knew my wife was gonna be really upset, because that in my opinion's the most offensive word that you can call somebody that's gay," Dougherty told the station. "I got on the phone with the police as soon as we saw it. They came out here and took pictures."

However, Officer Malaka Kerbs, a spokeswoman for the Gresham Police Department, told the station that this is nothing more than a criminal mischief case, because officers don't consider the f word enough evidence to call it a hate crime.

This right here is very important, we may not like it but,,,

According to KATU, this isn't the first time hate has cropped up in Gresham. The station asked Kerbs about Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers found in another area neighborhood in November.

Kerbs said police don't consider that a hate crime either, because the fliers weren't threatening anyone in particular.

"Was there some offensive language in the flier? Yes," Kerbs said. "But that's still part of freedom of speech."

It is also an issue that "helped" Marjorie Silva and Azucar's Bakery.

What one has to understand, no matter how despicable Jack's request was - "God Hates Fags" - it is protected by the First Amendment. "We" may call it hate speech, but the courts look at it more as "speech that is hateful" so long as it DOES NOT promote imminent violence, or as the court termed "fighting words" (cf. Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 572, 1942). More recent, in Synder v Phelps (2011), "Speech deals with matters of public concern when it can 'be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community' or when it 'is a subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public."

So in this incident, if we were focus only on what Jack wanted printed, we have a balancing act between yelling "fire in a theatre and causing a panic" (Schenck v. United States, 1919) versus "speech that is hateful" but not causing imminent harm.

Vandals Key Oregon Lesbians' Car With Antigay Slur, But Cops Say It's Not a Hate Crime | Advocate.com

Lawmakers reluctant to add LGBT to Ohio’s hate-crime law | The Columbus Dispatch

Last year, many people celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down bans on same-sex marriage. But advocates say there is more to be done to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Ohioans can still be discriminated against in employment, housing, and public accommodation based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, and in many parts of Ohio, they lack the ability to charge suspects with hate crimes, as was done in Conley’s case.

Lisa Wurm of the ACLU of Ohio said legislation to include nondiscrimination protections has been introduced in the state legislature every year for the past 10 years, and more than 70 percent of Ohioans think the law already exists.

“With marriage (equality) comes some additional actions that need to be followed up,” Wurm said.

But some groups in the state say that adding protections for LGBT individuals constitutes special treatment.
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Federal law expanded in 2009 to give individuals legal protection for bias-motivated acts based on sexual orientation, gender identity and other factors, but under the law, prosecution happens only if the crime poses a threat to interstate or foreign commerce. If neither is at play, state law takes precedence.

In Ohio, this means that hate crimes — referred to as “ethnic intimidation” in the Ohio Revised Code — based on sexual orientation, gender identity and even disability often are not prosecuted because they are not included in the state law.

Besides Ohio, 13 other states, including Pennsylvania and West Virginia, lack a hate-crime law that covers both sexual orientation and gender identity. Ohio also is one of 28 states that do not provide protection in employment, housing and public accommodation.

An executive order by then-Gov. Ted Strickland in 2007 made it illegal to discriminate against state employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity; in 2011, Gov. John Kasich continued the order but removed gender identity from the list of protected groups.

At the time of last year’s Supreme Court ruling, Kasich said Ohio’s anti-discrimination laws were sufficient without the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Lawmakers reluctant to add LGBT to Ohio’s hate-crime law | The Columbus Dispatch

NYPD Seeks Suspect In Midtown Anti-Gay Attack: Gothamist

 

Police are hoping the public can help them identify the suspect in a violent assault that took place in Manhattan last week. The attacker allegedly used anti-gay slurs during the incident.

According to the NYPD, on Wednesday, September 23rd, around 6:45 p.m., a 37-year-old man was near West 50th Street and Broadway when he was "punched and kicked several times in the face while being called anti-gay slurs."

The attack is being investigated as a bias assault.

NYPD Seeks Suspect In Midtown Anti-Gay Attack: Gothamist

Man robbed, beaten with bat after Dallas gay pride parade - Story | KDFW

Dallas police are investigating the beating of a man as a hate crime after gay slurs were used during the attack, which occurred hours after the annual LGBT Pride parade on Sunday.

The 29-year-old man was attacked near the intersection of Sylvester St. and Wycliff Ave. about 9:15 p.m. on Sunday by four male suspects. Police said the man was repeatedly punched, kicked and hit with a baseball bat. The men also robbed the victim.

The victim was hospitalized and was in stable condition as of Monday afternoon. He suffered a fractured skull, numerous abrasions, cuts and bruises.

Police said the suspects “made numerous derogatory statements referencing the victim’s perceived sexual orientation.” The assault also occurred after the annual Allen Ross Freedom Parade that celebrates LGBT pride. Police said they believe the attack meets the criteria of a hate crime.

Man robbed, beaten with bat after Dallas gay pride parade - Story | KDFW

UPDATED::KRISTV.com | Continuous News Coverage | Corpus Christi - Corpus Christi residents charged with federal hate crime charges

UPDATE::  Texas Men Plead Guilty to Federal Hate Crime Charges for Racist, Antigay Attack

A second man involved in a brutal 2012 attack on an African-American gay man in Corpus Christi, Texas, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges Thursday, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jimmy Garza, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes, and one count of a hate crime violation based on the victim’s sexual orientation, FBI officials stated in a Thursday release from the Southern District of Texas of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Along with 22-year-old Ramiro Serrata, Jr., Garza was accused of attacking the unidentified victim in a dispute over a $5 debt. Even though the victim paid the two men, the assailants assaulted him while using racial and homophobic slurs. The victim escaped by jumping out a second-story window.
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Serrata pleaded guilty to the same charges earlier this month. Both men will be sentenced on December 9, and each face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

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Federal hate crime indictments were returned Monday against two Corpus Christi men accused of beating and torturing a gay black man back in 2012.

In the days after the alleged attack, the victim told KRIS6 News he was targeted because of sexual orientation and race. Per policy, we are not identifying the victim of an alleged sexual assault.

He detailed how he owed the men $5. The victim claims that even though he paid them the money, they still beat him, poured bleach in his eyes, stripped him naked and sexually assaulted him with a broom or mop and forced him to clean up blood in the home.

KRISTV.com | Continuous News Coverage | Corpus Christi - Corpus Christi residents charged with federal hate crime charges

Man pleads guilty to anti-gay hate crime in Seattle | Gay Star News

Troy Deacon Burns of Bremerton, Washington has pleaded guilty after being charged on Wednesday under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr, Hate Crimes Prevention Act, according to the Justice Department.

Holding a knife raised over his head in a stabbing position, Burns approached three gay men who walking along East Pike Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood just after midnight on Jan 25 and yelled ‘fucking faggots’ as the trio crossed the street, according to a court document.

As Burns got closer, he made eye contact with them and repeated the slur yelling ‘Yes, fucking faggots’ while holding a knife at waist level. One of the men said he heard Burns say ‘I’ll fucking stab you.’

The three men ran, but Burns caught up to one of them and again used a gay slur while threatening to stab him.

Man pleads guilty to anti-gay hate crime in Seattle | Gay Star News

Police Name Suspect in NYC Chair Attack | Advocate.com

New York Police Department officers are looking for Bayna El-Amin, who they believe smashed a chair over the heads of a gay couple eating at a Chelsea barbecue joint.

El-Amin has been arrested 18 times, Gay City News reports, including for assault. Police believe El-Amin fled New York since the attack on May 5, which left 25-year-old Ethan York-Adams and his 32-year-old boyfriend, Jonathan Snipes, with gashes and loose teeth.

A video of the fight taken by a witness shows a man kicking Snipes before the assailant slams a chair over the head of Snipes and York-Adams. Snipes claimed the assailant was angered when he accidentally knocked over a drink; the man then began calling them antigay slurs. What happened next is disputed — Snipes said he confronted the man, who then responded by attacking him. The witness who shot the video, Isaam Sharef, claimed Snipes threw the first punch.


Police Name Suspect in NYC Chair Attack | Advocate.com

Nebraska man charged in burning of neighbor’s gay pride flag calls it a prank: ‘I have gay friends’

Why do people think that "having gay friends" makes their stupidity any more palatable?  If you're an asshole drunk, guess what you're just an asshole

A Nebraska man, accused of stealing a neighbor’s gay pride flag and setting it on fire in front of their home apologized for the “confusion” he created, saying it was only a “prank,” reports KETV.

Cameron Mayfield, 23, is accused of stealing the flag from the home of a neighborhood gay couple at the beginning of March and now faces felony charges of arson aggravated by a hate crime.

Police received a call from the women who identified Mayfield and, while investigating, found the burnt remains of the flag in his basement.

According to Mayfield’s father, his son had been drinking the night before the incident. 

“My client wants to apologize for the foolish stunt he committed on March 1,” said James Martin Davis, Mayfield’s lawyer. “He was intoxicated.”

Speaking with the press, Mayfield searched for a word to explain his actions, finally choosing “prank,” adding, “I have gay friends and I apologize to my neighbors. I’m sorry for the confusion. I don’t hate anybody or anything.”

 
Nebraska man charged in burning of neighbor’s gay pride flag calls it a prank: ‘I have gay friends’

See also:   Attorney: Man accused of burning gay pride flag was pulling drunken prank, not committing hate crime